Characters: The Spys
The spies of Chuck first came into being through the first episode when Chuck got the intersect uploaded into his brain. Return Sarah Walker Very little information about Sarah's past has been revealed so far. The only people outside of her family confirmed to know her real name, revealed to be "Sam", are Director Graham (now dead), Daniel Shaw (also dead), and Chuck. It is otherwise only known that she has confessed her middle name is Lisa. Her father was a con artist and much of her youth was spent moving from city to city under a series of aliases as part of his ongoing schemes. She attended at least her senior year of high school—and graduated in 1998—under the alias of Jenny Burton.[ While playing "Know Ya!" at the beginning of "Chuck Versus the Wookiee," she mentions having a sister; however, it is currently unknown whether this is true or part of the identity she created as part of her cover. Nothing has been revealed about Sarah's mother. As a child growing up, Sarah was not only aware of her father's activities, but actively participated in them. One of their scams involved Sarah fooling an armored car driver into thinking she'd been hit by the vehicle while riding her bike, while her father claimed to be a doctor and examined her. During the confusion, he would then lift money from the vehicle. Another trick was the "Lichtenstein," in which her father would masquerade as a struggling German inventor or businessman attempting to unload an invention or other valuable commodity that never actually existed. Christmases were spent scamming the Salvation Army. Sometime in 1998 before her graduation, Sarah's father was arrested for his own protection after a scam went wrong and put his life in danger. He left her a hidden cache of money for just such an emergency, and it was while recovering this that she was first approached by CIA Director Graham. He took her in as a protege after remarking on her many aliases as a child and gave her the cover name of Sarah Walker. Although apparently "recruited" at this point, flashbacks make it clear that she continued in high school; several of the popular children cruelly mocked her as the "jailbird's daughter" because of her father's imprisonment. According to NBC.com's Spy Dossiers she was (officially) recruited out of Harvard University. She also spent a year with the Secret Service. Sarah's CIA "red test," or first kill, was Evelyn Shaw in 2005. Sarah was given no background information about her target, and couldn't check on the kill because she had to flee from the scene before police arrived. It was later revealed that Director Graham administered the mission after believing Evelyn Shaw had become a rogue agent for the Ring. Beginning in 2005, Sarah was partnered with Chuck's former friend and college roommate Bryce Larkin. Their professional relationship eventually evolved into an intimate one 'John Casey' Only scattered information has been revealed about John Casey's past or his family. "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" reveals that his real name is Alexander Coburn (Chuck had flashed on this name in a previous episode, but the face is redacted and Casey cautions him not to dig further) and that under the command of Col. James Keller, he faked his death and was given a new identity of John Casey. In a second-season episode, Casey was shown calling someone he referred to as his mother, but considering the situation and the fact that he referred to himself as "Johnny Boy," it seems he was speaking in code. He was a choirboy and has perfect pitch. Even his age is unknown, though there are clues in his revealed career history. He was attempting assassinations in the 1980s, he left the Marines to become an agent in January 1989, he was 23 years old when he started training with his mentor, NSA instructor Ty Bennett, and it was 1994 at some point in his training with Bennett. Although Casey has flown a stealth fighter, he holds his rank through the US Marine Corps. "Chuck Versus the Fake Name" reveals that Casey is a world-class sniper, and it is confirmed two episodes later that he began his career as a hot-shot Marine sniper. He served as a Lieutenant in a Marine amphibious force in Honduras in January 1989. While serving there, Casey was informed that he had not qualified to train with Special Operations Command, and immediately after receiving this news was recruited into the NSA by Colonel James Keller. "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" reveals that Casey served in the military as Alex Coburn and had a fiancée named Kathleen McHugh. However, Col. Keller ordered Casey to fake his death, requiring him to give up his life and Kathleen, who he did not know was pregnant at the time. She told him over the phone that she had some news for him, but before she could finish, Keller cuts them off and gives Casey his order of faking his death. Later in that episode, after Chuck rescues Kathleen from Keller's men who were sent to kill her, Casey arrives to help him clear everything up and finds out that Kathleen has a daughter named Alex whom Casey fathered and is named after. When Casey is discharged from the NSA by Beckman, Chuck tries to persuade him that all is not lost and gives Casey the picture of him and Kathleen. He tells Casey that it's not too late, Kathleen lives around town, and that he can get to know his daughter. Casey tells Chuck that he made the choice of love for country over love a long time ago and that it was and still is the best decision for him. In the NSA, despite lacking the usual qualifications, Casey was eventually accepted into the tutelage of the aforementioned Ty Bennett, under whom he trained for "a long time" (Sarah's words) and who taught Casey everything he knows (Casey's words). While teaching Casey hand-to-hand combat techniques, Bennett attempted to help Casey, who already had a short temper, find a "calm center." Since then, Casey survived torture by Baath separatists and spent two years undercover in Afghanistan. He also attended Roan Montgomery's course on Infiltration and Inducement of Enemy Personnel ("Seduction School") and failed it twice – although Montgomery revealed that he failed Casey because Casey's partner was "too pretty." Casey suffered a devastating personal tragedy while stationed undercover in Chechnya. He was involved with an Associated Press photographer named Ilsa Trinchina who was apparently killed in a bomb blast near the hotel where they were staying.7 The incident left him deeply traumatized, with cameras apparently causing flashbacks to the tragedy. It was later revealed that Ilsa was a French spy who had faked her own death. Ilsa reappeared in "Chuck Versus the Undercover Lover" as the undercover fiance of a Russian crime boss. Casey also had a final tryst with Ilsa after capturing the Russian crime boss before she departed for further espionage missions. He has had previous dealings with CIA agents Bryce Larkin and Sarah Walker and has been intimately involved in some capacity with Sarah's DEA friend Carina as well. Casey is seen as a staunch Republican. He is a supporter of Ronald Reagan, even keeping a picture of the former president in his home, he supports gun rights, and he has displayed distaste over the fact that "the current administration" has discontinued waterboarding. However, during "Chuck Versus the Beard" Casey jokingly suggested a populist tilt when he convinces the Buy More employees, who had besieged the store in a coup, to allow him to enter so he could save Chuck from "Ring" operatives by saying to the employees, "the only thing I hate more than hippie and neo-liberal fascists and anarchists are the hypocrite fat-cat suits they eventually grow up to become." He is staunchly anti-Communist, and several times attempted to assassinate Premier Alejandro Goya, (Armand Assante) the Communist revolutionary and president of the fictional Latin American nation of Costa Gravas. His actions against the nation earned him the nickname "Angel de la Muerte." ("Angel of Death") 'General Diane Beckman' Brigadier General Diane Beckman is the director of the National Security Agency. Little information has been revealed on General Beckman's background prior to the start of the series. She holds her rank of Brigadier General through the United States Air Force and according to the chart on the back of his Tron poster is believed by Chuck to at one time have been romantically involved with CIA seduction specialist Roan Montgomery. She revealed that she spent a significant amount of time and resources hunting Orion, the Intersect's chief designer, before he re-appeared and made a deal with the government. Little other information about her personal life and service has been revealed, although Beckman maintains a close friendship with Condoleezza Rice 'Director Langston Graham' Director Langston Graham was the direct superior of agent Sarah Walker, and assigned her to follow-up on Bryce's theft of the Intersect by sending her to Burbank to track down where he sent the data. Little personal information about Graham has been established, other than that he arrested Sarah's father when he conned the wrong people. The details of the arrest and later release of Sarah's father have not yet been revealed. During this event, Graham cornered and confronted Sarah while attempting to recover money her father left in the event something happened to him, where he was impressed by her skill with knives and took her under his wing. Graham is one of a few people who knew Sarah's real name, (from her birth certificate) as well as the series of aliases she used growing up as part of her father's con jobs. It was Graham who first gave her the name "Sarah Walker." 'Bryce Larkin' Most of what has been revealed about Bryce's background has been in dialogue, with some details provided in flashbacks. "Chuck Versus the Intersect" established that Bryce was originally from Connecticut. He attended Stanford University, where he met Chuck Bartowski on his first day of class in 1999. As shown in "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater," Chuck and Bryce quickly became friends because of their mutual interest in computers and video games. While in Stanford they wrote their own version of the classic computer game Zork in C++. The same episode also established that Bryce was friends with Jill Roberts, who would later begin dating Chuck. Bryce and Chuck enjoyed games of Gotcha! in the school library. Bryce was recruited into the CIA by Professor Flemming in 2002. The following year, Bryce learned that Flemming intended to recruit Chuck as well for the Omaha Project. As shown in "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater," Bryce sacrificed his close friendship with Chuck to protect Chuck from the government, which he told Flemming would destroy him. He conspired with the professor to frame Chuck for cheating on his exams, and Flemming expelled Chuck, claiming that Bryce tipped them off. To make matters worse, Jill Roberts told Chuck that she had left him for Bryce, a lie she told under the orders of a CIA splinter group called Fulcrum. Because he protected Chuck from the government, he was the only spy Stephen J. Bartowski (a.k.a. Orion, the creator of the Intersect) would trust, and Bryce promised Orion not to let the Intersect fall into the wrong hands. Sometime in 2005, Bryce was first partnered with Sarah Walker. At some point, their professional relationship spilled over into an intimate one and they became lovers. However, as established in "Chuck Versus the Nemesis," Bryce was later contacted by Fulcrum to steal the Intersect, leading to his separation from Sarah and the central events of the series. 'Stephen J. Bartowski' Few details about Stephen Bartowski's life have been revealed on the show. His wife left him when Chuck was in the fifth grade and although he loved his children, Chuck describes him in "Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp" as "never really there." Stephen is a computer and software genius who attended graduate school with Ted Roark, whom Bartowski would later allege stole all of his best ideas. Sometime after the end of his association with Roark, he went to work for the government. He worked with Drs. Jonah Zarnow and Howard Busgang on the Intersect computer database, where he was the head of the project under the codename "Orion." Stephen would tell Chuck in "Chuck Versus the Dream Job," regarding the Intersect, he designed "just the really cool parts." He would later reveal to Chuck that he tested the Intersect on himself, and thus possesses an older version of it himself. Stephen left his children roughly ten years before the events of "Chuck Versus the Dream Job" after promising to make his children pancakes for dinner. At some point, Stephen learned what the government intended to do with the Intersect and knew that others would want it too. Stephen decided then that he had to go on the run, and stay away from his children in order to protect them. After completing the original Cipher, Stephen purged his personal records and disappeared. Ever since, he has been the target of a major global manhunt by the NSA. According to the "Spy Dossiers" at NBC.com, the manhunt has continued for "over five years," and General Beckman claims to have "had an army of analysts and spies hunting for Orion since before [ Sarah Walker was] in a training bra," which if taken at all literally would indicate a much longer manhunt given that Walker is roughly 28 when Beckman makes the claim. With only his codename to go on, Stephen was targeted by both the government and Fulcrum. Fulcrum assigned Vincent to the task of tracking him down. Stephen faked his death on several occasions. Stephen's mastery of computer systems allowed him to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, to the point that the NSA issued a directive that all communication pertaining to the hunt for Orion be carried out via non-electronic means. "Chuck Versus the Ring" reveals that Stephen had asked Bryce Larkin to look out for his son after he found out the latter protected Chuck at Stanford. Orion asked Larkin to keep him away from the Intersect project, however it was Bryce's familiarity with Stephen and the Intersect that played a role in his decision to send it to Chuck. After the Intersect 2.0 is retrieved by the CIA, Stephen reprograms the Intersect with new physical capabilities under the condition that Stephen and Chuck are left alone. In addition Bryce promised Orion that he would not allow the Intersect to fall into the wrong hands.